House panel defers OVP budget deliberations anew

The House appropriations panel on Tuesday deferred the committee-level deliberations on the Office of the Vice President (OVP) Sara Duterte’s proposed P2 billion budget for 2025.

This happened after the House committee on appropriations carried the motion made by Ako Bicol party-list Representative Raul Bongalon, who asked for the deferment of OVP budget deliberations “subject to conditions either 1) reduce the proposed budget of the OVP and 2) place certain funds on hold until further discussions are held.”  

No single lawmaker opposed Bongalon’s motion, a move made after the Vice President snubbed Tuesday’s OVP’s budget deliberations after it was deferred the first time last week.

The first deferment was due to Duterte's refusal to answer the lawmakers’ questions on OVP’s budget usage, especially on the P125 million and P500 million confidential fund allocation of the OVP under the 2022 and 2023 national budget, respectively. 

Lanao del Sur Representative Zia Adiong, the designated budget sponsor of OVP, could not say if the House will reduce the OVP’s proposed P2 billion budget for 2025.

“That’s (reduction of OVP’s proposed budget) one of the recommendations, but it is a mere recommendation unless it is acted upon by the majority,” Adiong said when asked if the House is already decided on cutting OVP’s proposed P2 billion budget for 2025.

House appropriations panel chairperson and Ako Bicol party-list Representative Zaldy Co expressed reservations to grant the OVP its proposed P2 billion budget for next year amid the recent disallowance notice from the Commission on Audit (COA) over its P73 million confidential funds.

According to the COA Notice of Disallowance, at least P69 million of the P73 million disallowed involved the following: P10 million for reward payment; P34.857 million for payment of reward (various goods); and P24.93 million for payment of reward (medicines).

COA said that the OVP did not submit documents showing the success of information gathering and/or surveillance activities to support the acknowledgment receipts for around P69 million of payments of rewards in cash, various goods, and medicines.

“Bibigayan pa ba natin siya ng P2 billion na ipanggagastos daw sa mahihirap? Ibigay po natin ito sa tamang ahensya,” Co said.

(Why should we give her P2 billion that is supposed to be spent on aiding the poor? Let us put this fund to the appropriate agencies.)

“Huwag po nating hahayaan na waldasin na naman ang kahit pisong sentimo na dapat nating bantayan,” Co added.

(Let us not allow a single peso to again be squandered.)

Sara's claims

Duterte earlier claimed that House Speaker Martin Romualdez and House appropriations committee chair and Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Elizaldy Co have been "controlling" the national budget allocations.

“Ang budget ng Pilipinas ay hawak lang ng dalawang tao. Hawak lang siya ni Cong. Zaldy Co at ni Cong. Martin Romualdez. ‘Yan ang katotohanan,” said Duterte in the second part of the recorded video interview shared by the Office of the Vice President to reporters. 

(The budget of the Philippines is being controlled by two people, Cong. Zaldy Co and by Cong. Martin Romualdez. That's the truth.)

She said this was the reason why she refused to answer questions in the previous House budget deliberations.

According to Duterte—who served as DepEd Secretary from 2022 to mid-2024—-only P5 billion was initially approved for the classroom construction of DepEd under the 2023 National Expenditure Program (NEP), but when the General Appropriations Act (GAA) came out, the allocation increased to P15 billion. 

“Sa Department of Education noong taong 2023, mayroong P5 billion na in-approve para sa classroom construction. Nagulat ako kasi mayroong mga lumapit na miyembro ng House na humihingi. Hinihingi nila ‘yung P5 billion—parte ng P5 billion na budget,” she added. 

(In DepEd in 2023, there was a P5 billion approved budget for classroom construction. I was surprised because there were House members who asked for a share. They were asking for their share in the P5 billion budget.) 

“‘Yung P10 billion na ‘yun hindi kontrolado ng Department of Education. Controlled ‘yun ni Cong. Zaldy Co at Cong. Martin Romualdez," claimed the Vice President.

(That P10 billion is not controlled by the Department of Education. It was controlled by Cong. Zaldy Co and Cong. Martin Romualdez.)

"Hindi ko na kailangan ng corroborative witness dito dahil makikita ninyo ‘yun sa papel. Makikita ng taumbayan ‘yun sa papel. NEP, P5 billion. Lumabas ang budget approved, P15 billion,” she added.

(I don't need a corroborative witness here because you can see it in the paper. The people will see that in the paper. Under the NEP, it was P5 billion, but it became P15 billion when the approved budget came out.) 

Co vehemently denied Duterte’s allegations. 

“Unang-una, again pangbubudol na naman po yan. Napakalaking pambubudol. Hindi po totoo iyan,” Co told reporters.

(Those claims are a scam. Straight up scam tactic. It is not true.)

This, as Co emphasized that the House appropriations panel has 139 members, while the House has over 300 members, and that there are also 24 Senators who scrutinize the proposed national budget every year.

“After our respective deliberations, there’s also a bicameral conference committee [deliberations] which is composed of 30 members from the House and the Senate,” Co added.

—VAL, GMA Integrated News